A decade after invasion, killings go on in Iraq

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BAGHDAD — Ten years after the US-led invasion of Iraq, militant attacks showed Monday that while violence has ebbed, insurgents are still routinely trying to undermine the Shi’ite-led government and security forces.

A suicide attacker drove his explosives-laden car into a security checkpoint in the central town of Balad Ruz, killing five people, officials said.

A decade after the start of the war, Iraq is standing between progress and chaos, strained by local and regional conflicts with the potential to draw it back into turmoil.

The nation is no longer protected or dominated by its relationship with the United States, which lost nearly 4,500 troops and spent about $1.7 trillion on the war.

The autonomous Kurdish region in the north is thriving, thanks to an oil boom and savvy leaders. The Shi’ite provinces in the south, bolstered by the Shi’ite-dominated central government, are boomiing. But minority Sunni areas are struggling to claim a fair share in the new Iraq.